After playing until the sun set, Koutarou and Kii headed for home. They took a train to the city and headed for the mountain where the Cradle was on foot. It would only take about 30 minutes from the station to the Cradle.
“We're back...”
Holding hands with Koutarou, Kii looked at the mountain growing larger in front of her. Koutarou had fulfilled everything he had promised. Now it was her turn. It was finally time for her to go back home.
“I was never planning on returning home...”
“That's just how it is. You don't run away from home for long. After growing up a little, it usually ends”
Excluding special cases involving things such as abuse, the reason for running away from home usually involves immaturity. In other words, running away from home usually ends when you grow up.
Kii had also grown up. She had run away because of the friction between her and her father after her mother's death. However, after calming down, she realized her own immaturity and forgave her father. She realized that she's not the only one in grief, that her father was suffering too. As a result, she had considerably matured.
“I'm sorry for causing you trouble for several days, Onii-chan...”
“It's alright. I think it's a good thing that I met you”
Koutarou believed it was a good thing that the two had met.
Kii was a very gentle girl. Though he had been troubled at first, he felt that they had now become friends.
And if she hadn't met Koutarou, what would have happened to Kii? Would she wander the city on her own? What then? Thinking about it like that, Koutarou believed it was a good thing to have met her.
What can I say... I get a strange feeling from this girl...
Koutarou had felt a sense of deja vu several times after meeting Kii. The face of a familiar person would sometimes overlap with hers. He had felt something similar back in Forthorthe, but this time it was even clearer.
“Oh and thank you for the card”
Kii pulled out the metallic card and showed it to Koutarou.
“I made sure to write my name on it to not lose it. Look!”
Characters had been written on the card using a permanent marker. That was supposed to be Kii's name, but since she was a six year old, it only looked like scribbles.
“Ah...”
Deja vu.
That's impossible!? I know this card!?
Koutarou had seen a card like this before. In the past, he had seen a card with scribbles just like these. However that card was old and the metallic color had lost its sheen. As if ten years or more had passed.
Then, this girl is... no, wait, can such a coincidence really happen!? Isn't it just that the scribbles look similar!?
Koutarou was getting confused. If he were to believe his intuition, he would have to accept a hard-to-believe coincidence. Compared to that, he felt it was more natural for the scribbles to just look similar.
“Kii-chan... could your name be...”
He could just confirm her name. Doing that would make everything clear. If Kii was just a nickname, and her real name was something else, then...
“Could it be, Kiri―”
However, just as Koutarou was about to ask her name, a video billboard that had been installed on the outside of a nearby building caught his eye.
“The time is 6:06PM. Here is the weather report for today, April 16 1999. The skies will be clear over the entirety of Harukaze city―”
The moment he saw that large billboard, the date displayed there filled his head. What he had been thinking of before completely left his mind.
“I-Impossible. It's April 16, 1999!?”
“What's wrong, Onii-chan?”
Noticing that the atmosphere around Koutarou had changed, Kii looked up with a worried expression. And since he had a pale face, Kii squeezed his hand.
“Which means that the accident happens today!? And there's less than one hour!!”
“Onii-chan what are you talking about!?”
Seeing how Koutarou was behaving, Kii sensed that something serious was happening. So her expression changed to a serious one.
“My mom will die soon!!”
On April 16, 1999 Koutarou's mother died in an accident. It had happened, no, it will happen at 7PM. An event that would forever change Koutarou's life was about to occur in less than an hour.